General knowledge quiz set 589

The Hyderabad based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in association with the Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR) has developed Improved Samba Masuri (ISM) variety rice with low Glycemic Index. Rice with low Glycemic Index is considered suitable for people with diabetics. The new variety is also resistant to bacteria blight. The ISM has lowest Glycemic Index of 50.99 against the normal 53 to 70 in several rice varieties. It has shown better yield and fine grain type enhancing its market potential and profit for farmers. The scientists stated that the new variety is not a transgenic one and they did molecular breeding in CCMB and traditional rice breeding at the rice research institute. The ISM has been grown in 1.3 lakh hectares in 7 states including Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The IIRR is a rice research institute located at Rajendranagar, Hyderabad.

Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, has recently flagged off mobile therapy vans which would provide basic medical assistance to elderly people, widows and other section who requires social security. The therapy vans will be equipped with basic medical apparatus and accompanied by a technical team. The van is an outcome of a joint project of the World Bank and the Bihar government which is run by Social Welfare department.

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak has been bestowed with the 18th edition of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration, Academics and Management for year 2017 by the President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan on October 10, 2017. Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak is the founder of Sulabh International and has developed and implemented, on a pan India scale, a low cost and appropriate toilet technology popularly known as the Sulabh Shauchalaya system.

The Union government has engaged private lender ICICI Bank to enable online payments at 470 mandis integrated with national portal of electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM). At present, e-NAM participants are doing payments through traditional ways via bank branches, debit cards and net banking. Now, ICICI Bank will enable BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on the e-NAM portal for making cashless payments. The effort is to provide seamless experience for making online payment of trade and services undertaken on the e-NAM platform. At present, 470 mandis across 14 states are live and 90 commodities are being traded on e-NAM platform, which was launched in April 2016. The target is to connect 585 mandis with e-NAM by March 2018. The e-NAM model aims at revolutionising agri markets by ensuring better price discovery, bringing in transparency and competition to enable farmers to get improved remuneration for their produce moving towards ‘One Nation, One Market’.